Ruby Rose: Spidergirl
by XaosDiscordial
Summary: Ruby Rose always wanted to be a hero like in the comics. Doing great feats, saving people - it was the perfect dream for her. Sadly, they didn't exist, so she chose to be a huntress - the best way to help people. But when a certain radioactive spider bites her, her whole life is thrown off track as she gets her dream come true. But with new powers come new responsibilities... [AU]
1. The Beginnings of Greatness

**Hey guys, back with another story!**

**See, I've wanted to create a RWBY/MCU fusion story, but I have no experience with writing superheroes. So, I decided to write a stand-alone superhero story to learn how to do that before moving on to my original idea. Therefore, this story, like _To Steal from the Cookie Jar, _will not be cannon to any of the story universes I have planned.**

**Fair warning: this wasn't my idea originally. This is inspired by fanart I saw of Ruby as Spiderman/girl and also a fantastic story called **_**Ruby Rose The Spectacular Scarlet Spider **_**by The Vigilant Spider which can be found in my favourites and is being currently re-written - go check it out! So you may be wondering - why do a story idea that somebody else has already written? My response is that I feel I can bring something new to the table. And anyways, this is fun practice for my later endeavours.**

**And now, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**Ruby Rose: Spidergirl**

**Chapter 1 – The Beginnings of Greatness**

/-/

Ruby was in heaven.

This, of course, was figurative; The gleaming walls of the SDC facility were far from the soft white of the pearly gates, but Ruby somehow found them to be more appealing. Ruby jumped from display to display to display, staring intensely at the contents of each – a gun here, a prosthetic there, all stamped with the SDC seal or the Schnee snowflake emblem. She saw a sniper rifle and squealed loudly.

Yang laughed behind her, watching as her sister hopped around with abandon reminiscent of a dog in pursuit of a stuffed toy. She shook her head and looked over at Weiss.

"You'll have trouble stopping her now."

Weiss scoffed, tossing her hair with a flick of her head. "I doubt it will be that hard. We don't have all day, after all."

At this moment Ruby flew back and clamped down on Weiss like a clam, smiling widely. "Thank you so much for this, Weiss!"

Weiss scowled half-heartedly. "Ruby, get off me!" After she had prised herself from Ruby's grip, her frown loosened. "It was nothing really. Being the heiress can get you a free pass to basically everywhere."

"Doesn't really feel like it." Blake shrunk into herself again, looking around warily. "I swear all the guards are staring at me."

"You're just paranoid, Blake! It's not like you're a faunus or anything."

"What's that supposed to mean-"

"Guys!" They both looked over at Ruby, who was pouting in annoyance. "No arguing! Weiss went to the trouble of getting us a day trip to a Schnee tech compound, we can at least enjoy it."

Yang chuckled, walking up behind her. "Easy for you to say, you love it here!" She grabbed Ruby and ruffled her hair as Ruby squirmed. Eventually she let go, and Ruby sighed.

"Let's go, guys." Weiss and Blake nodded, and the four of them walked to the end of the hallway and through the door.

The atrium was huge; giant chandeliers hung from the ceiling, surrounded by a menagerie of robots, weapons and armoured vehicles. Ruby's eyes went wide at the sight as she gasped. In the centre of the room stood a woman staring over some plans, fuzzy hair falling down her back. She turned around as they came in, a worried smile set on her face.

"Ah! I was wondering when you would get here – my name's Doctor Oct-"

"Doctor Octavius! Oh my god, I'm a huge fan of your work!" Ruby flew forwards and shook her hand violently. Octavius, surprised, eventually shook back.

"Thank you, it's so good to see people interested in the sciences, especially huntresses. Anyhow, I'll show you around if you don't mind?" At Weiss's nod, she turned to one of the items on display.

"The Atlesian Knight, Model 1. Stronger than a foot-soldier, more obedient than a dog. You could say I personally played a 'hand' in this devices construction." She smiled when Ruby giggled. "A personal victory of mine. The programming constraints were quite extreme, as the AI was quite simple, but I managed to churn something out. I have contributed to every model since – in fact, a little birdie told me that another _may or may not _be in the works. _This_ project, however," She turned to the next case, "Is the work of a colleague of mine."

Ruby stared up at the huge robot in the case. It dwarfed her not only by size but by presence; it seemed to command the room in a strangely oppressive manner. It was made of desaturated green and grey panels – each an inch thick of solid steel – and had an orange visor over the front of what appeared to be a cockpit of some kind. Its servos were massive, each clearly larger than her entire arm, and she suspected that if it were to move it could crush her easily. Ruby shivered.

"The Atlesian Monarch prototype." Doctor Octavius stared up in muted awe. "Never finished, this was the work of the elusive Doctor Polendina. They say he designed the framework in a single day 40 years ago."

"Why have I never heard of this?" Weiss said, stepping towards the display.

"Because it was never finished." Octavius looked back at them. "It was meant to be a convertible tank – it could shift from this form into and airborne mode, allowing it superiority over land and sea. It was a response to the Mistral Airships. The military thought it promising, but it proved too costly; it used up dust so quickly that portability was impossible, let alone the terrible resource draw it would be to any unit assigned one. Polendina abandoned the project to move on to other projects – all of them top secrets of the Atlas Military. This was the only one ever made."

"But surely it wasn't a waste of time, right? You have to have learned something." Ruby looked at Doctor Octavius and she chuckled.

"Of course not. The cockpit design was implemented into the then-unfinished Bullheads, the revolutionary servo-to-system connections were repurposed into prosthetics and the Knights… almost everything reusable you can see elsewhere, and that which you can't is all top secret, I'm afraid."

Ruby nodded; it made sense to keep some things secret, especially for a military; even still, she wondered what secrets this marvel of mechanics held. She looked over to the last display. "What are those?"

"Ah, I suppose you'd be interested; I'm not exactly partial to weaponry, but you as a huntress in training may think about it differently." Doctor Octavius pressed buttons on the console and a cover shifted back to reveal a set of shells, one open to reveal a case filled with spiders. All four girls jumped back in surprise.

"What the f-" Blake started, but stopped herself when Yang glared at her. The doctor giggled.

"Don't worry girls, they can't harm you. Their venom glands are surgically removed prior to testing. They couldn't hurt a fly – well, I suppose they could, but you get what I'm saying." Octavius opened the box quickly and pulled out a handful of spiderwebs. "See?"

Ruby looked over at the spiderwebs in the doctor's hand. It glowed unnaturally, light reflecting off Octavius's palm. She looked over at the spiders. "What is this?"

"An old experiment, repurposed." She wiped her hand against her lab coat and locked the box closed. "A long time ago, there was experiment to see the results of infusing naturally-resistant animals with generic dust samples. We were particularly interested in their results for the spider tests, and so we did them ourselves to harvest their webs." She pulled out a box filled with dust rounds and picked up an open one, showing them the white contents. "The web glands of a dust-infused spider, for whatever reason, generate dust by themselves. The reasons for this are uncertain, but we have been experimenting with their use in weaponry and fuels-"

"To make dust sustainable!" said Weiss, taking the round from her and inspecting it. "If we could farm dust instead of mining it, we'd have a permanent sustainable source of dust." She smiled for a few seconds before frowning again. "I'm not sure my father would approve of this."

"He doesn't have to. This test was commissioned by General Ironwood himself."

Weiss nodded, setting the round down. They stood there for a few seconds, staring at the spiders in the display case. Suddenly, Doctor Octavius clapped loudly, shaking them out of their melancholy.

"Well, we'd better go into the next room, shall we?"

They all gave their sounds of affirmation, and she led them to the door. Just before Octavius opened it, Ruby felt a sharp pain of the back of her hand.

"Ow!" She shook her hand and watched as a tiny spider fell from it to the ground. Her eyes widened as she went to stomp on it, stepping back only when she was sure the creepy crawly was good and crushed.

"Ruby, are you okay?" Yang walked over to see her caressing her hand.

"Yeah, only a spider bite." They all looked over at Doctor Octavius.

The doctor walked over and inspected Ruby's hand. She smiled. "Don't worry. Like I said, no venom. You'll be fine. In fact, I'm more annoyed by the loss of research subjects."

Ruby let out a sigh of relief and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, overreacted."

Octavius nodded, and turned back to the door. "Shall we go?"

Ruby nodded, and they walked through.

/-/

Ruby groaned.

She grabbed her stomach as she lay on her side, staring off the edge of the bed at where Yang was so casually playing on her phone. She groaned louder to get her sister's attention but was ignored. She sighed loudly.

Shortly after returning to the dorm, she had suddenly become ill, and was now suffering for it. She had gone down to the infirmary at first, but the doctor there had said that she had eaten something off and just needed to rest. She believed him – she had eaten an extraordinary amount of A Simple Wok's noodles on the way back – but that didn't make her sickness any better. She groaned again loudly.

"Ruby Rose!" Said Weiss, gripping her pencil as she got up from her desk. "I appreciate that you aren't feeling well, but you need to quiet down. I'm _trying_ to study!"

"I'm sorry Weiss, I just feel so _sick_." Ruby said, curling up.

Weiss sighed dramatically, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Do you need a glass of water or something?"

"Yes please, nice-Weiss."

Weiss frowned. "Okay, but only if you quit calling me that."

"Fine, just water please."

Weiss left the room, presumably heading to the kitchen. Blake hummed to herself as she flipped the next page in her book. Yang gave out a cry of success when she won her game. Ruby waited.

Weiss eventually came back with water in a mug and handed it to her. Ruby took it gratefully, drinking it down like medicine. When she was finished, she gave the cup to Weiss and looked over at the window, shielding her eyes.

"I'm going to sleep now, please don't bother me."

"Ruby, what about our homework for Monday-"

"Weiss." Ruby shifted her bloodshot eyes to meet Weiss's blue ones. "Please."

Weiss pouted, but got the message. "Fine." She sat down on her bed in exasperation. "Tomorrow then."

Ruby nodded, the curled up on her side. Even as she drifted off, she realised that it was going to be a long night.

/-/

Ruby rolled out of bed with a muffled thump and a squeal.

He eyes snapped open as she frantically looked around at the others – but they were sleeping deeply, entirely unconcerned with her embarrassing fall. She let out a sigh of relief and thanked the gods that it was Sunday.

The dreams she had had that night had been strange – sharp sounds, epileptic colours and a constant sick dread – and she felt she finally understood the phrase 'fever dream'. Standing up, she noticed that something felt off as she walked to the bathroom for a drink.

Taking a drink and washing her face, she realised how hot she felt, and pulled off her top to let out heat. _Stupid sickness_, she thought, but upon looking at herself in the mirror she gasped.

Before, to have called her weak would have been a disservice – she did wield a massive solid steel scythe, after all – but her stomach had been flat, and her limbs had been quite thin and flimsy-looking. Now though, her stomach rippled with prominent abdominal muscles, and her arms more resembled Yang's and Pyrrha's than Weiss's. She looked down at her legs and noticed her pyjama bottoms showed more of her legs than before. Looking back at the mirror and leaning on the counter, she realised that she was significantly taller than before. She pulled back.

Her fingers caught on the counter. She looked down in confusion, pulling again. He hand didn't budge.

She pulled a little harder. Had somebody left superglue on the counter? She breathed in deeply and gently pulled.

Her hand pulled away like it was nothing. She leant over to inspect the counter where it had been, but there was nothing there. Confused, she turned to leave before realising she should probably put her shirt back on first. She tried to pull away, but her hand was stuck to the doorknob. She used the same technique she had before, and it pulled away cleanly. She checked her hand to see hundreds of tiny hairs across its surface. She ran her other hand across her palm and found that they didn't even feel of anything, but she knew her own body enough to know that they shouldn't be there.

She shook her head as she pulled her shirt back over her head. She needed to get to the bottom of this.

* * *

**You most certainly do, Ruby.**

**We'll see how this goes, now. I'll keep writing, even if nobody reads it - I want to put this idea down, no matter what. Again, this is good practice for my later fusion crossover ideas.**

**I noticed that many of my story ideas start with: "something weird/bad happens to Ruby." I was wondering why that is, but I realised it; Ruby Rose has the greatest narrative potential of the whole cast. She is the daughter of two of the most powerful hunters of all time, she has an expert teacher in the form of her uncle who is part of a grand conspiracy, the team SHE leads contains on of the richest people on the planet, an ex-terrorist and her sister who is _also_ an incredibly powerful huntress. She has fancy eyes that make her one of the most important people on the planet, she is taught by an immortal hero and is hatefully targeted by the closest thing they have to the DEVIL. She is in the most prime position to do anything, but she never does in the show until far later... so my stories force her to act NOW. Which gives us good drama and action.**

**So yeah. Let's see how Ruby deals with her new developments next week, Sunday.**

**BTW not doing the "Next Chapter:" thing I did for _To Steal from the Cookie Jar _anymore because that gets stressful after a while, and there's no real point to it.**

**See you dreckly!**


	2. Great Power

**Woo! Next chapter!**

**Thanks for all the great feedback - it's great to know that people are enjoying my stories!**

**Just want to say, this is not based on any particular version of Spiderman. For example, the Doc Ock we saw last chapter was the one from the Spiderverse movie, but the 'sticky hairs' thing is from the Sam Raimi films (I think) - however, Ruby lacks the natural webbing that the Sam Raimi version has. She also doesn't have Miles' shocks or his invisibility - my Spidergirl has her own, internally consistent, set of abilities related to her semblance. Just wanted to get that out there.**

**Finally, this story doesn't have a fixed end point - it will have arcs that govern its storylines, some of which will focus on the rest of the team (I have some plans) but there is no end result as of yet. I'll go for as long as I feel is necessary.**

**With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**Ruby Rose: Spidergirl**

**Chapter 2 – Great Power**

/-/

Ruby had finished getting dressed by the time that the others woke up. Her clothes adequately covered her hard-to-explain musculature, but her height was far harder to conceal. Yang was, of course, the first to notice.

"Ruby!" She had yelled, causing Blake and Ruby to wince and rub her head. Weiss looked at Yang in mild confusion as Ruby wondered why everything was suddenly so loud.

"Yeah?"

"Look – you're taller!"

Ruby looked at her in feigned surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah, look." She stepped up to Ruby and dragged a hand from above Ruby's head to her chest. It only met her nose, but Ruby remembered it being far lower before. "You're like, way taller."

"Huh. Guess all that milk did its job." She laughed, and Yang laughed too. Weiss looked inquisitively at her, as did Blake. Yang looked over Weiss and smiled predatorially.

"Hey, I guess that makes Weiss-Cream the shortest of us now."

Weiss squawked indignantly and stormed over to compare herself to Ruby. But Yang was right: Ruby could see the top of Weiss's head. Weiss, clearly noticing the same issue, scurried back to her bed while grumbling. Yang laughed again.

"Well, we need to find out how high you are now. I must not have noticed it last night."

Ruby nodded nervously. She didn't know what was going on, but comic books had told her that superpowers should be kept secret. Were these even superpowers, or something else? Was this because of something she ate? The spider from yesterday came to mind; could it have been that? Comic book logic told her yes, but this wasn't a comic book. She resolved to find out when she next had the chance.

"Hold on, what's the time?" said Blake, looking up to the clock. Weiss and Blake froze.

"10:00!" Said Weiss, eyes wide. "I need to go, or I'll be late for my restaurant reservation!"

"I told the bookshop I'd be there to pick up my delivery by 10:30!" Said Blake, hurriedly grabbing her clothes.

Yang just laughed as they frantically dashed around the room, trying to get ready to go. Ruby slumped in relief. They had finally changed the subject, and they were leaving to boot. Now just to get away from Yang…

A thought struck her.

"Hey, can I join you? I've been meaning to check out some new weapons parts in Vale."

Weiss barely spared her a look before nodding.

"Sweet." She turned to Yang. "Enjoy your alone time I guess."

"Eh, I'll just hang with Pyrrha. JNPR aren't going out today, are they?" At Blake's shaking head, she smiled. "Nice. Nora wanted to train some new moves with me."

Ruby nodded and grabbed her stuff. She needed to test some stuff out.

/-/

The ski mask fit snugly over her head as she pulled it down. Ruby, once she had evaded her teammates, had changed into clothes she would never usually be caught dead wearing – a grey jumpsuit that she had once worn for a school play, still baggy and itchy despite her new size, as well as a pair of cheap sneakers she had borrowed from her sister and a ski-mask she had found at a thrift store on the way here. If there was one thing that comic books had taught her (which there wasn't, there were _many_ things) it was that superheroes always hid their faces. Secret Identities and all that. She looked around the alley she was in – small and cramped, and empty apart for an open dumpster. It was time for superhero training.

She had wondered on the flight there what had caused her sudden empowerment. Was it something she had eaten something strange – or maybe it _was_ all the milk she was drinking! But she had eventually decided that it had to be the spider. She didn't care what Doctor Octavius had said; maybe something had been different about this spider, maybe the procedure failed or something else, but one thing was certain to her: it was the spider's fault. She just had this _feeling_.

It was this realisation that had given her an idea. Her palms were now extraordinarily sticky if she wanted them to be, but it wasn't until she had thought about the spider that it had clicked. What do spiders stick to? Walls. And now here she was, testing her ability to stick to walls in a back alley next to a rotten dumpster. She cursed whatever god had done this to her and placed her palm on the wall. It stuck.

She placed the other above it; using her rock-climbing skills from when she was at Signal (rock-climbing lessons were good for her upper arm strength, important for wielding Crescent Rose) she began to climb, focusing to release and stick each hand. Soon, however, this became effortless, and she was clambering around on the wall like- well, like a spider. She reached the top and climbed on.

The building's roof was flat, with a slight slant to encourage water into a gutter drain in the lower wall. She walked across it and looked across Vale.

The sight was beautiful; hundreds of buildings stretching off, cut off only by a wall. From here, the sound of the docks could be heard, and the sun glowed in the sky. She looked across the rows of identical green and grey roofing and had the sudden urge to jump across them.

The first gap was easy - just a hop. She broke into a run, jumping further and further as the gaps got harder to cover the gap. Suddenly, she fell short, grasping the edge of the roof. Looking down momentarily and being spooked by the view, she pulled herself up. To her surprise, she not only climbed onto the roof but launched herself upwards, flipping in the air and landing on her feet. She stared at her arms in awe.

Upon walking to the other side, she looked over the roof edge to see cars beeping and flowing below her. If she fell from this height, it was bound to kill her – or at least, aura considered, seriously maim her. The gap was huge – there was no way she could jump that, not even with her apparent super strength. She looked around, resigned to go some other way. Then she saw a spool of rope.

A few seconds later, and Ruby was readying herself to jump. The rope had been knotted with a lasso knot and thrown at a lamp post, and she had calculated the trajectory by eye. She could do this. And hey, if she fell, she was a huntress in training! She had a landing strategy, even though it was based around, y'know, having your weapon or being in a forest. This would be easy! Not fooling herself in the slightest, she jumped.

And swung.

She laughed as the air rushed past her ears, eyes closing reflexively at the sudden barrage. She moved like a pendulum – down, and then up again. When the wind disappeared, she opened her eyes and panicked, falling. She had been launched up by the swing and was now hurtling down onto the concrete of the other roof. With no other options, she curled into a ball and hoped for the best.

She landed with a thud and rolled a few feet before coming up standing. She turned to see cracked concrete where she had landed.

_Do I have super-resilience or something?_

Confused, she tried to figure out what would happen next when she heard an explosion off in the distance. She turned, suddenly aware of her lack of a weapon.

_Well… let's put these powers to the test!_

She launched into a sprint.

/-/

Ruby arrived at a bridge in the middle of Vale that was strewn into chaos. Cars were shoved across the road at strange angles, severed tension cables dangled from the side and two (empty) cars lay aflame on the road below. Pieces of the bridge that hadn't survived had fallen to the ground as well, exposed rebar poking up like deadly spikes. She landed on one of the pillars and slid her way down onto the bridge.

People were cowering behind upturned cars from the man who stood in the centre of the bridge. They looked up in confusion and dulled fear as she passed them to get a better look. The man's hands were emitting a cold and ominous glow from steel gauntlets on his wrists. He wore a brown and yellow jumpsuit and a strange mask over his face that failed to cover his maddened eyes. He must have heard her approach, as he turned to meet her gaze.

"Well, well well…" He said, bringing up his fists. "Look what we have here!"

Ruby felt a strange emotion rising within her, or… was it an emotion at all? Distracted, she momentarily focussed on the strange sensation.

_-DODGE-_

She moved without thinking as the man blew towards her, fist outstretched. She had barely a moment to consider this before he turned and attacked her again, blocking his fists as best as she could. She tried to land a hit, but he simply sent a fist into her gut, sending her flying. She finished rolling and looked up at him as he primed his gauntlets.

"I can see this is going to be interesting!" He laughed maniacally, staring her in the eyes.

Ruby struggled to her feet. "Who are you?"

He lifted his visor, smiling madly. "Call me The Shocker."

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**Well would you look at that, a new challenger approaches - and you may find him _shocking!_**

**I had to do some research on Shocker, as he isn't a villain I am super acquainted with, so don't be _shocked_ if he is crazier in this version - way I figure, in a world of Grimm, you'd have to be crazy to incite negative emotion on such a large scale. This world is an AU because of the villains that Ruby will have to fight - ones that are transplanted into this world from the Spiderman ones. Suffice to say, Vale is a lot more like New York this loop than it is in baseline RWBY.**

**Ruby - _shockingly_ \- doesn't have her spider suit yet or her webbings, so she's at a disadvantage here... wonder how she'll get out of this one!**

**So yeah. Ruby is up against a mad Shocker - and the people are counting on her...**

**See you dreckly!**


	3. Great Responsibility

**Hey, new chapter!**

**Sorry about being a few hours late, but fight scenes are ridiculously tedious to write. Pacing is a real issue here.**

**Every time I tried to write 'Shocker' I would accidentally write 'Socker' so... think of that as you read, I guess.**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

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**Ruby Rose: Spidergirl**

**Chapter 3 – Great Responsibility**

/-/

With a mad scream, Shocker slammed his fists down into the concrete. Ruby watched as cracks spread out from his feet and checked her aura mentally. She could tank a few of those.

Probably.

She launched herself towards him. He thrust his fist forward, but she managed to duck under it. She slammed into him, beating him with her fists. He laughed, unconcerned. He grabbed her and threw her into one of the support pillars of the bridge. It cracked ominously. She looked around.

The civilians were all staring in amazement and shock. She waved her hands at them. "Run!" she yelled, jumping to her feet. Shocker sent another blast her way and she braced for it. She slid back, but nothing more.

The civilians seemed to get the memo, scampering away in fear. Shocker tried to blast a shockwave at them, but she leapt forward and swung her fists. They struggled against each other. Ruby idly wished she had trained against Yang more as she lost ground to the madman.

She headbutted him, sending him reeling. She tried to kick him, but he grabbed her leg and sent her flying into the suspension cables. She landed safely on the bridge. The cable behind her snapped, falling to dangle to the road below.

Ruby gritted her teeth and braced for another blow. Sure enough, a blast of wind slammed into her like a freight train, threatening to send her over the edge of the bridge. She looked around again. The civilians were gone now. Good.

The Shocker ran towards her, fists raised. She tried to block his blows, but felt her aura weaken with every hit. Finally, he landed the last blow.

He hit her. Hard. She flew back and slammed into an upturned car, the steel frame crumpling against her body. Her red aura crackled as it broke. She gave a shuddering gasp, trying to hold her head up. Shocker slowly walked up to her bruised form, grinning like a Mistralian mask. His head rolled as he laughed.

"It seems I am the victor. Hah! Nothing can withstand my shock gauntlets! And neither did you. Sadly, you won't get to live to tell the tale!" He laughed maniacally as he primed his gauntlets one last time.

And suddenly dropped as a piece of rebar hit the side of his head.

She looked up at her saviour; an old man stared down at her, breathing heavily. He smiled, offering a hand. She took it.

Once she had her bearings, she looked him over again. He wore a bomber jacket and looked civilian – and very old! – in a pair of indigo jeans. He dropped the makeshift rebar truncheon he was holding and laughed.

"Used to get them every time back in the army! Glad to see it's still the same in the wider world." He chucked, holding out his hand. "Ben Parker."

Ruby shook it. "Nice to meet you, Ben… What happened here?"

Ben nodded and put on a more serious face. "This nutcase walked out to the middle of the bridge and used those gauntlets of his to throw up these cars. I don't think he wanted anything; he was just 'testing out' his equipment." He shook his head in restrained anger. "I thought people like this had died out in the war, but I guess not."

"Is anybody injured?" When Ben shook his head, she smiled. "Well, that's good at least."

"Yeah. Thank the gods you got here when you did, who knows what he would- LOOK OUT!"

_-DODGE-_

Ruby was barely aware of Shocker weakly lifting his fist and priming his gauntlet before the two of them were launched back over the edge of the bridge. Ruby grabbed Ben's hand and gripped a cable, wincing at the ropeburn. She let out a breath when she saw the ground below – neither of them could survive the fall from there.

She felt the cable slip beneath her hand.

Ben looked up at her sorrowfully. "Let go!"

"What?" Ruby stared in shock. "No!"

"You have to – you can't hold the both of us for much longer!"

"But you'll die!" Ruby gripped Ben's hand tighter but slipped again on the cable, coming ever so closer to the edge.

Ben sighed resignedly. "Kid, I gotta tell you something." He looked her in the eyes. "My father always told me, 'with great power comes great responsibility'. And I live by that. You," he said, pointing at her, "have a responsibility to stop that maniac and save the others. I can see greatness in you. You can't die here!"

"But what about you!" Ruby felt tears sting her eyes. "I have to save you as well!"

"Kid, you need to let go – or we both die. I've got the responsibility to save your life…" His eyes hardened. "And I have the power to do it." He reached up suddenly and punched her hand as hard as he could. She let go involuntarily.

He fell.

"NO!" She screamed, watching his descent. He hit the road below with a sickening crunch. He stared back with empty eyes, his leg bent the wrong way and his head bowing unnaturally. Blood began to pool from the back of his head. She let out a scream of pain as her rope-burned hand slipped again on the cable, and she gripped it with both hands. Her tears fell silently to the ground below.

Laughter came from above. She looked up in surprise as Shocker stuck his head over the edge, head wobbling concussively.

"What, is the old guy dead? What a shame. Looks like you'll be joining him!" He reared back his fist and sent a shockwave her way, but she used the momentum of the punch to swing back around and land under the bridge.

She let out a quiet sob, sitting in the dark. That man had been so… nice, and then he had just _died_. So easily, like snapping a wishbone, he had gone from alive to dead – and it was her fault. If she had been there faster, if she had been more prepared, if she had been more alert… She thought back to the moment he had hit them. A thought had rung through her mind, unbidden, even though she hadn't clocked the danger consciously yet: _"DODGE."_ Was this one of her new powers? Some kind of precognition? If so, she had been woefully useless – even with an advantage, she hadn't been able to save Ben.

Were all civilians that fragile? She had been around huntsmen and huntresses so long that she had forgotten what normal people were like. Had they always been so… delicate?

Ben's words came back to her: "With great power comes great responsibility." She had the responsibility to save him – to save them all! What kind of superhero was she, what kind of _huntress _was she, if she let people die so easily? And now, here she was; hiding. Hiding from something more powerful than she to save herself. She should be fighting him, saving people like Ben had asked her – but fear had her frozen, unable to move. She was useless.

Voices from above the bridge wafted through the tarmac, making her eyes go wide.

"Woah, what happened here?"

Blake?

"It appears somebody is causing trouble. We should investigate."

Weiss?

What were they doing here? She idly remembered that they were also in Vale. They couldn't be here; if she hadn't been able to beat Shocker with her new resilience, they didn't stand a chance! They were going to die… oh no, oh no, oh gods, oh…

No. She would not allow it. She looked at her hand, closing it into a fist.

"Save people… Yeah. I can do that, Ben. I can do that." She jumped for the cable, using the momentum of the leap to throw herself onto the bridge. Blake and Weiss were already struggling against Shocker – but Weiss was out for the count, and Blake was barely standing. She stood tall.

"Hey!"

Shocker stopped just as Blake fell to the ground, aura crackling purple. He gritted his teeth in anger. "You just don't die, do you! You're like a cockroach!"

She flew forward, knocking the both of them across the bridge and out of earshot of her friends. She landed sideways on a pillar and grinned weakly down at her opponent. "I think I'm more of a spider, actually."

"Is that so?" He primed his gauntlets again. "Well, you know what they say… SPIDERS. GET. SQUASHED!" He leapt at her, but she span out of the way, giving him a swift right hook.

"Never heard that one before, actually. Thought it was, 'spiders are good for the ecosystem and take care of disease-ridden flies. Although…" She looked him up and down in an exaggerated manner. "I don't see your wings. Did some kid pull them off?"

Shocker growled as he swung again. They struggled against each other, both sides delivering blows to the other. She jumped up and kicked him in the head, knocking him back. He sent a defensive shockwave at her, but she stood her ground. She didn't move an inch.

He ran back towards her.

-_JUMP_-

She leapt over his head, flipping as she flew through the air. She grabbed a hanging cable, swinging around and tying Shocker up. She landed almost gracefully and gave him one last punch. He was out cold.

She let out a sigh, and quickly removed his gauntlets. She wouldn't make the same mistake as last time. She dropped them on the ground and looked up with heavy breaths.

Blake was staring in shock. Weiss was struggling to get up, but seemed equally amazed. Blake took a step forward.

"Who… who are you?" she asked, her legs shaking. Ruby froze. They couldn't find out. Not yet, anyway. Not until she'd thought about it more, at least.

It just seemed like a bad idea.

She looked away. A police car was pulling up. It was time to leave. She took a running jump off the edge of the bridge.

She barely heard Blake's gasp of surprise as she swung around and landed on one of the support pillars. She parkoured over to the nearest building, only then glancing back.

Her friends were talking with the police, who were taking notes. Another couple of men were carrying Shocker's body into the back of the car. She sighed.

She jumped when her scroll rang in her pocket. Weiss was calling her. She checked that it was only audio and then took the call.

"Hi-"

"Ruby Rose, where are you?"

"Wha- I'm shopping." She lied smoothly.

"Why are you – oh right, the weapons thing. Look, something has happened."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we came across – actually, it would be easier to tell you in person. We need to be picked up; our auras are down."

"What! Your auras are down? Why?" Ruby noted that it was _way_ easier to lie when they couldn't see your guilty face.

"Look, we'll tell you later; meet us at the bridge near Coal Street. You know where that is, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I'll be right there."

"Good to hear." The line went dead. Typical Weiss.

She put the scroll back and stretched. She needed to get back to where she had left her clothes.

/-/

Ruby had been lucky that enough of her aura had come back by the time she had arrived that nobody had noticed. Pretending to have run all of the way explained her tiredness, and she blamed her lack of purchases on being interrupted by Weiss' call. All in all, the ride back to Beacon had been peaceful, and after being debriefed by Ozpin the girls had given her and Yang their version of the story. Ruby lay in her bed quietly as their story concluded, both seemingly shaken.

"I don't remember the last time somebody beat me so easily." Blake rubbed her arm nervously. "It was kind of terrifying."

Yang nodded. "But at least that weird girl showed up, right? She must have been a hell of a huntress to have beat the guy so easily."

"She didn't seem like a huntress to me." Everyone looked at Weiss in surprise. "She wore a mask and ran away from us. The innocent never run!_ I _think she was some kind of vigilante, maybe a part of the White Fang."

"Why does every criminal have to be in the White Fang to you!"

"I didn't mean it like-"

"Hey, stop fighting! You're just getting angry at each other for no reason, and I'm getting sick of it!" Weiss blinked, shocked at Ruby's outburst, before looking away guiltily. Blake did the same.

Yang let out a sigh, hugging the monochrome pair. "Well, if she _is_ some kind of vigilante, she's an okay one in my book; she saved you both."

Blake nodded lethargically, and Weiss feigned annoyance at the hug. The makeshift TV, on silently in the background, suddenly switched to the news.

"_Breaking News!"_ Said the anchor. _"A terror attack in Vale inner city has been thwarted by a masked vigilante. Witness reports say that the culprit Herman Schultz, who called himself 'Shocker', walked onto the bridge and set off some kind of explosive weaponry, resulting in multiple cars being upturned and extensive damage to the bridge. He was distracted by a masked girl in a jumpsuit while the civilians escaped. Two huntresses in training, who have asked to go unnamed, entered the fray later, but it was the masked vigilante who struck the final blow before fleeing the scene."_

"Why'd you ask not to be named?" said Yang in confusion.

"We were beaten badly." Said Weiss, cradling her side. "Naming us would merely hurt our reputation."

Blake nodded reluctantly, but Ruby got a strange feeling that she was hiding something. Before she could vocalise her suspicions, however, the TV continued.

"_Despite the incident being less than a day old, dustnet forums are already speculating as to the identity of our city's new protector. The nick-name 'Spidergirl' has taken hold, a name used by Herman Schultz himself during interrogation. Here is an excerpt we were allowed access to by the police."_

The voice of the Shocker played over a picture of his mugshot. _"So I'm just testing my new tech out, no big deal, right? An then swoosh! Here comes this f*BLEEP*ing 'Spider-girl' chick, and she starts f*BLEEP*ing fighting me."_

"Heh," said Yang, "Spidergirl ain't such a bad name."

The picture returns to the anchor sitting professionally behind her desk. _"The public opinion of Spidergirl at the present is overwhelmingly supportive; here's Sandy at the scene."_

"_Thanks, Lisa!" _said a blonde reporter, standing with her microphone on the bridge. _"We managed to get some interviews from the general public as well as the witnesses and the results are clear: 'We love you, Spidergirl.' It's terrifying to see the damage caused by Shocker here today; just here next to me, one of the support pillars is cracked – a cylinder of concrete. And rebar almost 5 feet across. Who knows what would have happened without Spidergirl here? Nobody, it seems, but one thing is clear; the city is happy that she was. Back to the studio."_

"_Thank you, Sandy. Now, that is not to say that Spidergirl has no detractors. Just two hours ago J. Jonah Jameson, editor-in-chief of the Daily Remnant, publicly declared his distrust of the new vigilante."_

An old looking man appeared on the screen. His expression was stern, as if everything in the world disgusted him especially the microphone in front of his face. _"Spidergirl is a danger to our city! Look at her; she's wearing a mask! And the way she ran away from police – remember folks, the innocent never run!"_

"Ugh," said Weiss, "Hearing it come from somebody else makes me see the flaws in that rhetoric. Wait- is that what I sound like?" Yang gave an awkward expression and Weiss groaned in response.

"_Who knows; maybe she was WORKING with the Shocker! That's right, folks – you could be flinging praise at a costumed criminal. I cannot trust somebody who refuses to show herself publicly. Can we really entrust ourselves to somebody with something to hide? I'll tell you, folks – NO! We can't. Spidergirl is a menace!"_

Ruby shrunk in on herself on the top bunk, unseen. Why did he feel that way? Was it her fault? It couldn't be – all those people had said they liked her…

All those people were dependent on her…

She returned her gaze to the screen, conflicted. Lisa was back on again.

"_Sadly, it isn't all heroics today; beloved in his community, family man and war veteran Ben Parker died today at the attack. The police believe he attempted to stop the Shocker and helped Spidergirl in the fight before being blown off the side of the bridge. He will be sorely missed by his family- oh." _She pressed a finger to her earpiece, listening carefully. _"I see. Right; *AHEM*. We have the honour of speaking to Ben Parker's nephew, Peter. To you, Sandy."_

"_Thank you, Lisa! State your name to the camera, please?" _The blonde woman from before was holding a microphone out to a brown-haired young man with glasses. The boy had a somber expression on his face.

"_Peter Parker."_

"_And Ben was your uncle, correct?"_

"_Yes, my uncle Ben. I… should have been here tonight."_

"_Well Peter, it wouldn't do to blame yourself for what you can't change." _Sandy smiled at Peter. _"You had a message for Spidergirl you wanted to say, I believe?"_

"_Oh yeah, uh…" _He turned to the camera. Ruby felt strangely as if he was looking right at her. _"Spidergirl, right? So, my uncle… he always used to feel so bad about his time in the army. Said that the Faunus war was a disgrace, wished he had never joined… All Ben Parker ever wanted to do was help people. And, as much as I wish I had been here today in his place… I'm also proud that he finally got his wish, that he died doing what he always wanted. So, thank you Spidergirl – don't listen to the hate. Keep on helping people." _He began to tear up. _"Thank you for not letting my uncle's death be in vain."_

"_Thank you for your heartfelt message, Peter. Back to the studio."_

"_Thank you, Sandy, and a special thanks to Peter Parker for his personal message there. This is a contentious time, and more information is being released by the minute, but the stats don't lie – only one death and a few injuries in an attack that should have been far worse. The city needed Spidergirl today – and she delivered. We'll keep you informed. Now, back to your scheduled programming."_

And so the TV switched back to the drivel it had been playing, and the other three members of Ruby's team began to talk amongst themselves. Ruby looked down at her mutant hands – the hands that had lost Ben Parker his life. She should have been able to keep her grip. Where had the stickiness gone?

She wouldn't let it happen next time. If the city thought it had a superhero, well, it hadn't seen nothin' yet. She made a fist, watching the strange hairs flex. Peter was right – she had to keep saving people.

No matter what.

/-/

Ruby looked at herself in the mirror. It was complete.

It had taken day to procure and work the materials, but she was done. She stared in amazement at her new outfit.

It covered her whole body, primarily black but with red streaks like spiderwebs. A large, stylised red spider adorned the back and the chest across her breasts – if she was to be a spider-girl, she would _be_ a spider-girl. The eyes were covered with two large white chevron-like shapes, which she could see through perfectly but concealed their colour. Her upper body was covered by open-fronted red hoodie with the spider emblem also on the back.

Finding fabrics that would let her new hairs pass through was a nightmare, but she had managed it – and with some high-friction sneakers built in, she could climb up any wall.

Her wrists bore a pair of web-shooters; she got the idea from an internet forum. Some genius had noted that she had 'swung around' on the cables like a spider on the day – and the idea had stuck. She now had her own web. The testing faze was over – leading to some very embarrassed showers after being covered with web fluid – and she knew that they worked.

She slid the suit off, revealing her workout clothes underneath. The suit had in-built shrink-fit technology (usually only seen in the Atlas military) which had been a nightmare to source, but it was worth it. Now she could put it on over most any clothing – which included her usual combat uniform, she had checked.

She admired her handiwork. Soon, Vale would meet the new Spidergirl.

-_HIDE-_

She had only just put away the suit and feigned boredom when Yang walked in, grinning broadly. She had decided to keep her new 'hobby' secret from her team – they wouldn't understand, for one – but that didn't mean she couldn't use them to train with.

"Hey, sis!" Said Yang, swaggering over to her. "You ready to train hand to hand?"

Ruby looked up defiantly. "You bet!"

The two of them left the room, chatting idly about the training ahead.

Meanwhile, across the city…

/-/

"Okay, first little Red and now _this? _When will Vale ever give us a break?"

Neo nodded in agreement as Roman paced back and forth, whispering to himself.

"At least she hasn't fought us _directly _yet, but what if she does? Speaking of, who'da though old Herman would go full supervillain, huh?" he looked thoughtful for a second, and Neo mirrored him. Herman, going full evil. Who'da thunk it?

Roman returned to his pacing. "Gods, I hope Cinder doesn't want us to deal with her, I ain't sure we can handle it… Well, maybe she- HELLO, Cinder!" He suddenly yelled, giving a false smile. Neo stared in surprise as her new boss walked up to them, her eyes glowing ominously.

"Hello, Roman. I assume you've heard about Vale's new… vigilante?"

"Of course, Cinder." His eye twitched. "Do you want us to do anything about it?"

Cinder hummed thoughtfully, feigning indecision. "No, not unless she becomes a problem. A word of warning though; the city is changing." She looked away into the warehouse, where White Fang members were carrying dust around in crates. "I think our plan might be set back by these developments; new players are appearing on the scene in response to Spidergirl's appearance." She turned back to Roman, an evil smirk on her face. "I suggest you try to keep up, Roman, lest I pick a new champion to sponsor."

With that, she walked away, leaving Roman to his thoughts. He sighed.

"What have I got myself into?"

* * *

**RIP Ben Parker - who would have expected it?**

**A moment of silence, please.**

**Ruby is now ready to rock as the brand new Spidergirl - but trouble is looming...**

**See you dreckly!**


	4. Friendly Neighbourhood Spidergirl

**Hey folks!**

**I know it's been a while, but things should be getting back on track either now or very soon! I'm going for a bulk upload today, in the hopes of building publicity for my !NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO! all about writing fanfiction. I worked very hard on it, so please check it out at ****watch?v=5Xa2xEQS8xw& (just put this after the usual URL and you'll be fine). Otherwise, today is my !18TH BIRTHDAY! and this is the 4th chapter of Spidergirl - the beginning of the second Arc...**

* * *

**Ruby Rose: Spidergirl**

**Chapter 4 – Friendly Neighbourhood Spidergirl**

/-/

Ruby just barely blocked Yang's fist as it came flying at her face. Yang gave a surprised smile as she pulled back, going in for another hit.

Over the past couple of weeks, Ruby had trained hand-to-hand with Yang extensively; where before she had been a slow learner, her new instincts made her pick up moves faster than even _she_ had anticipated. Yang feinted, switching the punch with a kick, but ruby found herself moving backwards before the hit even landed. She pulled off an accidental backflip, pirouetting on one leg in a roundhouse kick. Pulling back, she landed another backflip on all fours as she looked up at Yang. Or at least, she _tried_ to look up.

Yang, it seemed, had fallen after her kick, and was now staring in shock and surprise at her sister. Ruby brushed herself off, mentally preparing an excuse, before Yang suddenly wrapped her in a hug.

"I'm so proud of you, sis!"

"Yang… please… stop…" Ruby murmured, unwilling to give away that Yang's hugs… didn't bother her anymore. It had been a steadily increasing series of surprises for that one – at one point, she had slammed face first into a wall at full semblance-speed and had barely felt it.

Yang held on for another few seconds before releasing her with a content sigh. She looked down at Ruby with a small smile for a few seconds more, before stepping up and helping her off the ground.

"So, Rubes, I'd really love to keep training right now… but there's this really cool club in the city I wanna check out, and it's closing soon. I gotta go."

Ruby gave a mock glare. "Yang, you shouldn't be drinking."

"Hey, I won't be! It'll just be dancing, I promise." Yang gave Ruby another hug and stepped away. "I'll see you later, okay?"

Ruby nodded, and Yang dipped out quietly. The moment she was gone, Ruby rushed to the workshop to grab her suit.

It was time to suit up.

…

…

Okay, that didn't work. But it was a better catchphrase than nothing!

With her suit set up, she jumped out of the nearest window as surreptitiously as one can do that particular action and started her journey out to Vale. There was something calming about swinging from the webs – her body experiencing G-forces that could kill a civilian and would at least drain the aura of a huntsman as if she were just taking a brisk walk. It almost felt like an affront to nature – in a good way.

Almost.

Landing on a lightpost in central Vale, she set about her usual routine: saving cats and stopping the occasional mugging while thinking of a catchphrase.

"Feel my bite!" she murmured to herself as she swing through the streets. "No, to vampire-y."

"What about, 'Take my venom!'" she whispered as she climbed up a tree after a wayward kitty. She suddenly shook her head. "Okay, no. That one's just weird."

"Get spider-ed! Oh whatever, I give up." She frowned as she slipped into an alley.

Eventually, a long day of 'Spidergirl-ing' brought her back to the lamppost she had started on. She munched on a free cookie the nice shopkeeper had given her after she'd stopped him from getting run over. Now that she thought about it, she could swear she'd seen him working somewhere else too. He must have some _very_ busy days.

Her musings were interrupted by a sudden wave of warning.

_-LOOK-_

She glanced over at a nearby alley to see a large guy standing over some girl in an alley. Every sense she had told her that something here wasn't good. She jumped to the building and crawled underneath the fire escape.

The big guy and the girl weren't the only people in the alley – a smaller, lanky guy was tied up against a wall and was watching the girl with horror. The burly man pushed against the young woman, dominating her with his sheer bulk.

"Heard you folks have got a new money stream. We got that right?"

The woman shivered in fear. "Look, we don't want trouble-"

"Well clearly you DO!" The man yelled, and the woman shrunk back futher. "See, you're making more money than before but only payin' out the same amount! You trying to cheat us, girlie?"

The woman shook her head. "No sir, please, we just-"

"There ain't no excuses!" The monster of a man bellowed into the woman's face. Suddenly, he pulled back a little with a leer. "Though if you ain't gonna pay us what you owe… I gotta take a different kinda payment." He began to reach out towards the woman.

"My oh my, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" All three suddenly turned, finally seeing Spidergirl in full. "Cause let me tell you, the things you're saying don't sound all that family friendly."

The hulking brute pulled out a gun, which was promptly pulled from his grasp by an errant web. Ruby did a flip over his head and landed on the other side of him, catching him in her web. She pulled him in, knocking him out with a two-footed kick to the head, and tied him to the fire escape with webs. By the time she had turned around, The woman had already untied the smaller guy.

"Thank you, Spidergirl!"

Ruby blushed under the mask at the man's words. "No biggie, really."

"No biggie?!" cried the woman. "You just saved us from… that!"

Ruby blushed further at the praise "Well y'know, I'm just being your friendly neighbourhood Spidergirl."

The woman cocked her head in thought. "Friendly Neighboorhood Spidergirl, huh? That'd make a good catch-phrase."

Ruby blinked. "Huh. You know what, you're right."

_-CLOSE-_

Ruby suddenly turned in time to notice a crowd of people clambering and fleeing the plaza. She peeked out of the alleyway, but couldn't see any threat.

The woman followed her gaze. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, but you two should get out of here."

The two nodded, rushing off in the other direction. Ruby stepped out into the crowd, looking for answers. She managed to grab one of the fleeing citizens by the arm.

"Hey! What's going on?"

The man stopped and opened his mouth to speak before his eyes went wide. He pointed behind her. "That's what!"

_-DANGER-_

She turned, only dimly aware of the civilian running away behind her. The thing stood two foot taller than her, with almost grimm-like musculature and size – however, the colouring was all grey: a strange, skin-tight bodysuit that terminated in a single, ebony horn. The thing that might have been human stood tall before letting out a cry of fury.

"BRING! ME! **SPIDERGIRL**!"

Ruby braced herself for a fight. This was gonna be rough.

* * *

**Well, hello Mr. Rhino!**

**Setting off our new Arc with a quick catchup and a fight - but something's going on behind the scenes. Ruby is in more danger than she knows...**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this new chapter (finally) - as well as the video I linked, if you decided to watch it.**

**Either way, make sure to check out my !NEW PATRE0N!** **and Kofi at /xaosdiscordial for both.**

**Thanks you for reading, and see you dreckly!**


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